Outreach Sermons: "The Rescue" based on Ephesians 2:1-10

In this episode of the Witnessing Christ Podcast, we share a sermon from Pastor Mark Parsons titled The Rescue, based on Ephesians 2:1–10. This message powerfully explores the heart of the gospel: that salvation is not something we contribute to, but something entirely accomplished by Christ and received through faith.

Pastor Mark begins by linking two important passages—Numbers 21 and John 3. In Numbers, God instructs Moses to lift up a bronze serpent so that anyone bitten by snakes could look at it and live. Jesus later refers to this moment in John 3 to explain his own mission: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.” These passages reveal a central truth—salvation comes not by doing, but by looking in faith to the one lifted up for us.

To bring this message to life, Pastor Mark shares the compelling real-world story of the 2018 Thai cave rescue, using it as an extended illustration of what it means to be truly rescued. Like the twelve boys trapped in a dark, flooded cave with no way out, we were spiritually dead—unable to save ourselves. The rescue required skilled divers to come from the outside, carry the boys out one by one, and do everything for them. Some initially suggested training the boys to swim their way out, but rescuers quickly realized that wouldn’t work. The boys couldn’t contribute to their escape—they could only trust their rescuers.

In the same way, Ephesians 2 tells us that we were dead in our sins, not merely struggling or needing guidance. But God, rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ. We are saved by grace, through faith, and even that faith is a gift, not something we generate. Not by works, so that no one can boast.

This episode equips Christians with a vivid and relatable way to explain the gospel, especially when speaking with those who believe their eternal life depends on personal worthiness or moral improvement. The story of the cave rescue becomes a moving picture of the biblical truth that we don’t rescue ourselves—Jesus does.

Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of the Witnessing Christ podcast. Over the next few weeks, we are simply going to be sharing some sermons that I, Mark Parsons, have preached over the last several years. We're hopeful that these sermons and the outreach emphasis will help you as you go out and speak the truth in love. This week's sermon from Ephesians chapter two verses one through ten is titled The Rescue. May God bless you as you go out and speak the truth in love.

Speaker 0 My name is Mark Parsons. and it's a privilege to be with you today. Want to start with this seemingly simple but complex question that has been causing people consternation for thousands of years. And that's how does man approach the divine or how does man attain the divine? For thousands of years, creative connoisseurs of religion have been really saying the way that man who is down here approaches the divine ethereal up there is through some sort of an arrow pointing up, I must do this, you must do that. We must keep commandments. We must offer sacrifices. We must worship in the right sort of temple, and eventually we can approach or attain the divine. every false religion in the world is built off of that idea, an arrow pointing up, as you know, from your understanding of the Bible, our relationship with God is not about the work that we do to attain or approach Him, but the arrow pointing down from him to us that God became a man to live among us, to live a perfect life, die a sacrificial death, and be raised to life. So that not only could we approach him, but so that we could live with him and full forgiveness for all eternity. Well, unfortunately, some people over the years have taken that perfect gospel of the arrow pointing down, and they've gotten creative with it and they've added back on to it like, well, yeah, Jesus does his part, but you got to do your part too. And they'll add back on rules and regulations and ordinances and commandments and sacrifices, and you must do this. So the arrow starts down, but then it gets flipped right back up again. Today we're going to focus on this idea that God does not provide to us a partial salvation, but a complete salvation. When God rescues us, he doesn't say, Well, I'm going to do my part, but you need to do your part, too. And we're going to use the Book of Ephesians to show us why that's an absolute impossibility. that it's not about us, it's all about God and what he's done for us. Please be seated.

Truth in Love Ministry Podcast Mark Parsons here again. We thought it would be valuable to share with you two additional scripture lessons that I shared today. Before preaching the sermon from Ephesians chapter two I really love the interconnected nature of Numbers chapter twenty-one and John three sixteen that really focus on That our faith and our trust are not in ourselves and our works, but only in the perfect work of Christ for us.

Speaker 0 The first portion of God's word for our hearing and learning today comes from the Book of Numbers, chapter 21, beginning with verse four. Throughout the history of God's people, God has been teaching people that they've got a problem and that He's got what is the only solution to that problem. Their problem is sin. Their problem is death. His problem or his solution is himself and the grace that he offers. Even during the time leading up to the Exodus, God was teaching his people Israel that or prior to them being the people as they are over and over again. I will be your God and you will be my people. Well, the story that we're about to read takes place after Moses has brought the people out of slavery in Egypt. They've already passed through the Red Sea. God miraculously took care of them, and now, as they were wont to do, they often grumbled and complained. And this time, listen to what they're grumbling and complaining about. Listen to what God does to them to show them their sin. And then how God provides a very interesting solution. The solution of a snake on a pole. If you ever heard this story in Sunday school, if you were like me, I hate snakes. And this was like a weird story. But why a snake on a pole? What was God teaching them in this story? So here's what happens. They that is the people of God who had come out of Egypt, traveled from Mount Poor along the route to the Red Sea to go around, eat them. But the people grew impatient on the way. They spoke against God and against Moses and said, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness There is no bread, there is no water. And we detest this miserable food. What was this miserable food? While it was the manna and the quail that God miraculously provided for them to give them sustenance, that miserable food. Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them. They beat the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, we said when we spoke against the Lord and against you, pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, Make a snake and put it up on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. This is the Word of the Lord, and this is where the story ends. For now, we're going to pick up on the rest of the story. our gospel lesson from John Chapter three contains one of the most familiar verses in the Bible. John 316 but what's the context of John? 316 happens on a night when a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a man who thought that the way that we would be made right with God was through keeping of rules and regulations. He's a lot like people today that think that they're going to be made right with God through following rules. Well, he had something weighing on his heart, in his mind, and he came to Jesus with the question is, is this really what it takes to receive eternal life? Is this really what it takes to be saved? And Jesus uses that story of the snake on a pole as an illustration to say no. What it really takes is placing your trust and your faith in the right thing, not in your works, but in the perfect works of the one who would hang on a pole for you. Listen to some of the most beautiful words in the Bible as Jesus explains what he had come to do for the world and how that becomes ours through trust or faith. Jesus says, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what has been done has been done in the sight of God. Here ends our second lesson. God's word for our consideration today, for our sermon. Meditation comes from the book of Ephesians chapter two, beginning with verse one. When Paul wrote these words, he was writing to a congregation that, unlike some of the other congregations that he wrote to and Galatia or Colossi, where we have a very specific understanding of the problem or the false doctrine that Paul was writing about to Isaac, who was coming in saying you needed to follow the Old Testament ceremonial law of circumcision or others like that. We don't have absolute certainty. What Paul was addressing with the Ephesians, but many assume that someone was teaching what sometimes is referred to as a Jesus plus theology, that Jesus does part of the work. But you need to do part of the work as well during that time in the early church. One of the things that people were trying to add to Jesus was the works of the Old Testament ceremonial law. There were other people, including the Gnostics, that worked their way into the church that said you needed to have some higher knowledge or understanding than just the gospel of Jesus Christ. So some commentators assume Paul is addressing both of those when he writes these words in effusions to as I read through these, you're going to notice that Paul makes a very logical progression in his argument here. He is telling them about four different key doctrines of the Bible that are really throughout the Bible, but perhaps nowhere else in the Bible in such a succinct manner as this. Those four doctrines are sin, grace, faith and works. today. We're going to focus mostly on the idea of faith in those four key concepts. But as we read, Look for sin, what God tells us about sin, what he tells us about grace, what he tells us about faith. And finally, what he tells us about good works, worried from efficiency to verses one through ten. Paul says this. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live. When you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the Kingdom of the Air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. He's talking about Satan or Lucifer. If you didn't pick up on that. All of us have also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts like the rest. We were by nature deserving of wrath. But one of the best words in the Bible. But because of his great love for us, God who was rich and mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace. You have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us, in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace. You have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So far, God's Word will pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight or God, our rock, our refuge, and our redeemer. Amen. I need you to think back a few years. Think back long before the time of the COVID pandemic. All the way back to the year 2018. July of 2018. Can you think back that far? A lot has happened between then and now. Back in June and July of 2018, there was a news story that captivated not just the United States of America, but the world. Does anybody remember? It can't be one of my family members because they've heard the sermon before. They may remember the big international story of June, July of 2018. Anybody remember? Yeah, it's been a long time. It was a story about 12 little boys, that were trapped in a cave in the country of Tyler. Now I see lots of had not. So back in 2018, you remember this big story that was all over international news is these 12 soccer players had been at practice one night. And then as all Ty soccer teams do after practice, their coach took them spelunking in a cave. And while they were in that cave, the monsoon rains, which they knew came at this time of the year, all of a sudden exploded and the water in the cave filled up so rapidly that they were trapped inside. And you remember how their parents knew they were in the cave. They found their bicycles at the entrance of the cave. And so they knew they were trapped in the cave. And so right away they went and found local cave expert. and they said, what are we going to do to get these boys out of here? They said, Well, the monsoon season is here now. They're trapped. We're going to have to call upon some cave diving experts to get them out of here. Now, like cave diving expert is like, yeah, actually, I actually know a few names of these guys back in the United Kingdom and Australia. They're the best cave divers in the world. Not professionals. This is their hobby. But you need to call them. Nobody else will be able to rescue these boys. And that's when the Thai government got involved and said, No, no, no, no, we got this. We have the Thai version of the Navy SEALs. So they called upon them and those men showed up with all of their fancy, expensive equipment, and they went to the cave and they came back out and said, Yeah, you better call in the experts. To which their leaders said, Aren't you the experts? And they said, No, we've been trained to do diving and rescues in open water in lakes or in the ocean, not in the dark, cramped confines of a cave. They said, you better bring in those experts. Well, the experts were many, many miles away, and it would take some time, several days for them to get there. So while they were waiting for the men to come from the UK, That's when the government also said, you know what, we got to have some other ideas, too. So even if we find these boys, it's not like they're just going to be able to dog paddle their way out. most of the boys didn't know how to swim, let alone scuba dove. So they actually got a group of 12 and 13 year old boys and took them to a local aquatic center and started to teach them how to swim and scuba dove so that once they found the boys, they could teach them how to swim and scuba dove. Others said, You know what? We'll just take enough food in that they can survive the monsoon season, which is like four months long. And their parents were like, No, they can't stay in the cave till the end of monsoon season. And they also realize water is going to continue to fill the cave up. It happens every year. And so that's when they got creative again. And they got a whole group of people, a thousand of them at first to lay down a system of pipes and pumps in the cave to pump out hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a day. So all of this is happening as these men come from the United Kingdom and Australia. When they finally show up a few days into this rescue mission, they get there and it's a circus. There's just thousands of people everywhere and they get their gear ready and they go into the cave the first day They don't find anything. A few days in, they pop up in a cavern that they had not previously explored. And before they saw them, they smelled them that the boys had been in the cave over a week. At this point, you can imagine how disgusting this little muddy platform that they were sitting on was. But that's when they've got footage of just it's very, very rudimentary film footage of the the very first face of the little boy that sees them and his eyes light up. And in one of the documentaries that was made about this, there's actually four different Documentaries and even a miniseries made out of this story in one of those, that's when the little boy says we're saved. And that's when the diver in very simple English says, you're found, but you're not yet saved. And when I heard that, I thought, that's a really interesting concept. There's a difference between being found and realizing the problem and actually dealing with the problem with a solution. They were 2.4 miles back into the cave. It had taken those divers nearly 6 hours to navigate their way through the tunnels and caverns to get back there. And so they're thinking to themselves, this took us forever to get in here. These boys were the three experts in the world at this. Are we really going to be able to train these boys how to do this now? Later on, they realized that they can make the trip much quicker if they put down a system of ropes that they can kind of pull themselves along. But even with that, they're staying at minimum three and a half, 4 hours. They said it's the amount of energy expansion that it would take to run two marathons to go underwater like that. So just incredible amounts of energy expelled. And so as they're making their way out of the cave, they're thinking to themselves, like, is this really gonna work to teach these boys how in a sense, to rescue themselves And all of a sudden they pop up to adjust some piece of equipment in one of the caverns close to the mouth of the cave that they had previously explored. They pop up in this cavern, and there's two men trapped in this cavern. And they're like, What are you doing here? And they said, Yeah, we came in to lay down the pipes and the pumps and the rain filled up the cavern and we couldn't escape. And these men tested the oxygen level in this little tiny cavern and realized, we've got to rescue these guys before we can rescue the boys And so they tried to rescue them right then and there. They had brought along extra oxygen tanks and masks, and they threw broken English and Thai tried to communicate. We're going to put the mask on you. We're just going to dove you under the water. You just need to let us do the work. Right. Grown men, they drove them under the water. And as soon as they were in the dark, cold water, they tried to help. They tried to start swimming. And in the process, they almost killed their rescuers. Netflix does a really good job with this part of their documentary. Like it's bloody because one of the cave divers hits his head on the top of the cave and starts bleeding and they eventually swim just the 400 yards that they needed to take these men to the entrance of the cave. As soon as they got out, they said that whole plan of teaching the boys how to swim themselves out, that's off the table. They said, when you are trapped in the cold, dark cave on the other side of the world, you can't rescue yourself. I hope you're already starting to make some of the same spiritual applications that I did with this story that we were in a similar situation. Not trapped in a cold, dark cave on the other side of the world. But we were trapped in the darkness of our sin and unbelief. And much the same way, someone couldn't come and say, You know what? Through a little bit of improvement or following Jesus. Perfect example. Eventually you can swim your way to God and become perfect like him. No, the Bible says this. It says in verse one and two of our reading today. As for you, you were what, not sort of trapped, not just in need of a polishing up or a tune up. You were dead. Dead in your transgressions, instance in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and the rule of the kingdom of air. The spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. He goes on and says, All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. The folks that I witnessed to I spent a lot of time on these verses. There's a lot of folks that I spend my time witnessing to think that it is through moral improvement and the keeping of commandments that eventually we can polish ourselves up and present ourselves before Heavenly Father for judgment. But what does he say here? He says you were dead. What can a dead person do spiritually? They can only stay dead. What can those boys in the dark of the cave do? They can stay trapped. They are not going to be able to save themselves, even if someone teaches them how to swim. We needed to learn something much better than swimming. And so that's where God acts. He acts in a life where we're this was our problem. We were, by nature, deserving of wrath. What does wrath mean? That means to receive the full punishment of God because of sin. God took that wrath away in this way. One of the best verses in the Bible says this. But because of his great love for us, God, who was rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. Even when what? Even when we were dead. And transgressions. It is by grace. You have been saved. Some false theologies. Teach that grace is something that God gives you. Once you show some effort and as long as you are keeping ordinances and covenants and continuing to make promises with God and following commandments, he'll give you a little bit more grace and you do a few more things that will give you a little bit more grace. One of my ex Mormon Christian friends calls this Grace Gatorade, where God kind of looks at what you're doing is like, hey, he's putting in the effort here. Have some Grace Gatorade to help you along in the next step of the process. Many false religious systems treat grace in a very similar way. You must do something to show God that you are worthy, you're striving, you are improving. And God will say, Oh, thank God, yeah, I'm going to give him a little bit help. And then if you stop working, he's going to pull that back until you start working again. Is that the kind of grace we need? That's not the kind I need. Because, like you, I was dead. Not able to say help me. Not able to say, look, I'm trying. But I was dead in need of absolute, pure, free grace. And that's what God provides. Let's go back to the cave for a minute. We left those boys trapped there. So when the cave divers came out of the cave, they had been concocting a new plan on their way out. But it was a very complicated plan, which, in essence, they explained, in order to save these boys, we need to kill them first, to which their parents said What? They said what? We need to knock them out with so much anesthetic that they will be completely passive in this whole process. They started to do the technology or the biological math for how much anesthetic it would take to knock teenage boys out in cold water for 4 to 5 hours. And their their physician said that's going to take enough of a drug called ketamine, which is often used to knock out full grown cows. It would take enough of that ketamine to knock out a full grown bull for 5 hours. They've got to give those little boys that much drug to which the parents said, which all of you parents would say, absolutely not. Not my children. So they spent a few more days trying to come up with new plans, and eventually they realized this is really the only plan we have. And so they actually brought in one more cave diving expert friend who happened to work in anesthesiology. And they convinced him after a bunch of people signed a bunch of papers saying, we will not sue you when these boys die, they finally convinced him to go into the cave with them with wetsuits, with oxygen masks, with syringes full of ketamine. And this is the part of the story that gets kind of crazy. Those little boys had been trapped in there almost three weeks now and they were ready to get out. And during this time they'd been bringing food in. They had been told that there are people, all sorts of people waiting to rescue you. And they come into the cave and they tell him, today's the day where we're going to get the first one of you out of here. And they said, Who's going to go first? And this part was really cute. The boys had been preparing for this moment, so they had all gotten together and decided who was going to go first. It wasn't the oldest, it wasn't the youngest. It wasn't the best swimmer. They decided the one that should go first is the one that was furthest, that lived furthest from the cave. Why? So that when he got out, his parents could stop at all their houses on the way home and let them know that they were getting rescued. They didn't know that you and the rest of the world were watching this. What was kind of cute. But the footage that they have of that little boy is priceless because that little boy doesn't say, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want to go with that. Teaching me to swim plan. Show me how to scuba dove. He simply trusted his rescuers as they put the wet suit on him, as they put the mask over his face, as they shoved this giant syringe into his thigh. They simply trusted that these men were doing for them something that they could never do for themselves, that these men who had come from the other side of the world were their only hope for life outside of the darkness of this cave. My friends. That's your story. That's my story. Our trust is not saying to Jesus, show me how to improve and I'll do it. Our trust is saying you came not just from the other side of the world, but you came from out of this world to do for me what I could never do for myself. And my only part in this whole equation is simply to look to you and trust, to get rid of all of my works into trust solely in the perfect work of Jesus for me. I can't do this. Those boys were saying. And one by one, over a period of three days with that system of ropes and these cool little underwater sleds, they pulled the boys and their soccer coach to safety. It is one of the most incredible rescue stories ever. That involved over 10,000 people. The rescue 13 hour rescue mission is no less significant because God, our great good shepherd will leave the 99 of his flock to find the one last like you. And that's your story. And that's my story. When I use these verses with folks that I'm witnessing to, often they'll say, That's all great, but what do we have to do? And I'll say, You were dead. There was nothing you can do. But but we have to do something right. And this is where the little boys serve as a good example. One more time here. So after the boys got out of the cave, like you would imagine, they had not just their 15 minutes of fame. What about 15 days of fame? They went on the talk show service circuit all over Asia and even here in America. And I saw one clip where they were on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I don't normally watch that, but I pulled this up later on to to see this interview. And through a translator, they asked the little boys, well, how did you get rescued? And that's when one of the little boys that the translator said, well, I was just so smart. And I listened to everything they told me to do. I learned how to swim. I learned how to scuba dove. And I rescued myself. You're all looking at me like, did he really say that? No, he didn't say that. Instead, with tears in his eyes, he looked across to the other side of the interview stage at those three rescuers, and he pointed at them. He said. They're the reason I'm here today. They came to do for me what I couldn't do for myself. My friends, that was their work in their rescue is to spend the rest of their life pointing to their rescuers, saying, these men, I'm giving them all the glory. That's your role in your rescue story. The way that people explains it is this. He says, but because of his great love for us, God who is rich, made us ally with Christ even where we are dead. It is by grace. You have been saved. God raised this up, seated us with him moving to 894. It is by grace. You have been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God. Not by what? Not by your works. So that no one can boast. And here's the part they're going to wrap up here with for we are God's handiwork or his masterpieces who have been created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Paul understands something. Good works are a part of the Salvation Lite part of the plan, but they are not for salvation. They are from salvation. Even those little boys understood that their good work now was to spend the rest of their lives declaring the name of their rescuers. That's your good work, too, that you get to spend your entire life saying to all the people around you. I was dead in my transgressions and sins. But the gift of God, through grace, through faith, is eternal life. And now I'm in a point to that cross into my Jesus. And I'm going to tell you about him, not just this day, but always in that rescue mission, as I mentioned. There were over 10,000 people involved to rescue 13. You are not going to save lost souls yourself. Only the Holy Spirit can bring people to faith. But God can use every single one of you here today as part of his rescue plan. Every year, our ministry takes a group of about 100 Christians to Gilbert, Arizona and Provo and Salt Lake City, Utah, to witness to people that that know the name of Jesus but don't know Jesus. And we're just part of that story. There are tens of thousands of people on our ministry e-mail lists learning about witnessing that are supporting us with financial dollars. It takes thousands of people sometimes at your congregation, you might be saying to yourself, What can I do? Our pastor, he's the one that he's the expert in witnessing. But you know, Jesus, you know your story, you're qualified to go and share that. So next time you have an outreach event where you're knocking on doors, you're inviting people to your campus, don't say, Oh, well, that's for the people that are trained at Martin Luther College or have some sort of biblical degree. You know your story. You were dead. You're alive because of Jesus. You can share that as a witness to get involved in that way. Your offerings support this congregation and our whole mission in our world mission efforts. There are hundreds of different ways that you can be like those little boys and say, It wasn't about me. It's all about Jesus and what he's done to rescue us. And my friends. There are millions and billions of people that are trapped in the cold, dark cave of sin and unbelief right now that don't even know it. And God can use you as part of that rescue mission to go to them and say, there is a man who came from out of this world. His name is Jesus. He lived a perfect life. He died a sacrificial death. He rose from the dead for you to come and see you. Even if all you do is say, Come to my church and listen to my pastor. Preach and teach. That can be your role. My friends, rather than saying, I've got nothing to share. You've got your rescue story to share. May God grant you to remember that story and be emboldened to share it with everyone that you meet from this day forward. May God grant it. Amen.

Truth in Love Ministry Thanks for listening. Have a blessed day in the Lord. Go in his peace, sharing his truth in love to those that need it most.